Seeds for a happy planet

This is the theme of the last issue (July-September 2007) of What Is Enlightenment?, a magazine published by EnlightenNext, the group of people around Andrew Cohen. Although I’m not really a fan of Andrew, and I certainly don’t agree with a lot of what he is saying around this subject, there is still a lot of value to read in this magazine.

Here is part of an Interview with Tenzin Palmo (author and Tibetan Buddhist nun), in which I find a lot of inspiring quotes. It will definitely influence my – and our – thinking around the next women’s gathering we are preparing for the fall. It will again be called: Women Moving the Edge. When the invitation is ready, you will find it on my website.

Tenzin Palmo: … We have to become strong instead of always exerting this needy sense of wanting. And in order to do that we need to develop the side of ourselves that we normally consider to be male. Not the aggressive side, but the confident side that conceives that if we wish to do something, it is possible for us to do it.

WIE: Are there other challenges that women particularly face in fulfilling the potential we now have?

Tenzin Palmo: One of the most significant problems is that women don’t support other women. This is a very ironical situation, and it has kept women weak throughout time. We support each other in little ways, but when it comes down to it, we will always hand it over to the guys.

WIE: One of the great early feminists in America, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, observed that women will often undermine other women, particularly those who take the lead and stand out.

Tenzin Palmo: Exactly! And if we are really going to be a power and a voice in this world, we have to stand solidly behind each other and not get caught up in factionalism and jealousy. Until we’re aware of that, it won’t change. …. I mean, we don’t respect each other. We don’t trust each other, why should anyone else value us? If women really held hands together, we would be a terrific power.

WIE: You’re implying that we could create a very different kind of society and world.

Tenzin Palmo: Society has to change, doesn’t it? By rights, we should be a tremendous power for good, because look at where we’re headed. But whether or not we will be that force of goodness depends solely on us. Unless we have a radical change in our consciousness, in our understanding of what is genuinely important, and in our way of relating to each other and to ourselves, the whole world is heading for disaster. Women, after all, are half the human race, but when we put each other down snidely, which we so often do, it keeps us weak and disempowered. And we have to deal with it because, unless we all stand together, our fragmentation denies us a real platform to stand on. We aren’t half the human race then. We’re just little groups scattered here and there. For the first time in millennia, women could have a very strong voice. And presumably, it would be a different voice.

WIE: What do you think that voice should say?

Tenzin Palmo: I think it should say that this lifetime is very, very precious and we shouldn’t waste it. Women have this great opportunity, and if we are conscious of it, then we will fulfill that potential. And if we’re not, then we will mess things up, just as men have done throughout history. We have to stand up and take a deep breath and look in our own hearts and ask ourselves what we really think is important and what we really want to do with this lifetime and then do it. The thing is that we can go astray if we’re not very careful, because you never know with women. We have to realize our strengths and our weaknesses and this lack of mutual support.
So we will see what happens in the next fifty or one hundred years as women begin to wake up and start to flex their muscles. And hopefully, we’ll begin to see that, just  as our imprisonment in samsara is caused by our own self-delusion, the problems for women are caused by women. Therefore the solution is in our hands. We don’t have to wait for men to change their attitudes. It’s up to us to change our attitudes, and that’s hopeful because, as with everything, the problem is never out there. It’s always in here.

In terms of the U-process we had more or less passed the eye of the needle and the morning on the third day started with a different energy. We were now in the phase of co-presencing. Personally I didn’t have a clue how to move forward, no tools or designs would come up in myself, but there was a deep trust in the process and in the collective.

And this trust turned out to be more than worthwhile!

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